Kids comb beach in search of golden eggs

HAMPTON — Nolan Durant, 4, of North Hampton was beside himself with excitement at finding one of the six golden eggs at the 14th annual Easter Egg Dig on Hampton Beach Saturday morning.

Suzanne Laurent

HAMPTON — Nolan Durant, 4, of North Hampton was beside himself with excitement at finding one of the six golden eggs at the 14th annual Easter Egg Dig on Hampton Beach Saturday morning.

“I got one,” he exclaimed as he headed to the table to choose a prize with his mother Linda Durant. He proudly showed off a giant package of sports balls. Nolan was the fourth finder of a golden egg from the hunt hosted by the Hampton' Department of Parks and Recreation.

Meeghan Quinn, 5, of Hampton, was getting desperate to find a golden egg and asked this reporter if she was the one who buried them, hoping to get some inside scoop.

“I didn't grow up near a beach and this is a great idea to have the kids dig for their eggs,” said Laurie Mantegari of Hampton, who was at the event with her daughter Amelia Donahue, 4. “It's great to have that extra element of working to find the eggs rather than just run in a grassy field where they're more visible.”

Mantegari also liked how there were two areas for different age groups to give the younger ones a fighting chance. There were two digging areas — one for children age 5 and under and one for children age 6 to 12.

Parks and Recreation Director Dyana Martin said a crew of about 40 came to the beach at 8:45 Saturday morning to help the Easter Bunny bury 10,000 plastic eggs filled with stickers, candies and plastic coins for the free event.

“We had Recreation Council members, Hampton Boy Scout Troop 380 and the Winnacunnet High School's girls lacrosse team help out,” Martin said. “The beach was so beautiful that early.”

Anticipation ran high as kids and their parents and other relatives surrounded the areas lined with caution tape. There were all sorts of containers to collect the eggs from sand pails with matching shovels to purple Halloween pumpkin-shaped plastic containers to cement buckets.

Martin said each child could collect 10 eggs to make sure the estimated 1,000 kids who showed up each got their fair share.

But those golden eggs were pretty elusive. After one hour there were two still somewhere buried on the beach and kids were still digging up holes in the sand in pursuit of them.

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